The shooting of two teachers and two students by a 14-year-old boy at a Winder, Georgia, high school on Wednesday has turned gun regulation into a campaign issue for the presidential elections on November 5. The two candidates and their parties have opposing proposals on how to deal with the epidemic of mass shootings that is repeatedly hitting the United States. While Kamala Harris and the Democrats are demanding tougher gun access regulations and banning assault weapons, Donald Trump and the Republicans are refusing to accept new restrictions and are betting on strengthening security in schools.
The debate has been inflamed after statements in which the Republican candidate for vice president, JD Vance, referred to the shootings as a “reality” (the literal in English, to fact of life, (A fact of life, it is more charged with indifference or resignation.) Democrats have recalled that Trump boasted of being “the biggest fan” of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and that at the organization’s convention he boasted about having resisted pressure during his presidency and having “done nothing” to restrict access to firearms. After a shooting at a school in Iowa that left three dead in February, he said: “We have to get over it: we have to move on.”
“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRA and the lobby of guns over our children. That is the alternative in this election,” said Ammar Moussa, spokesman for the Democratic campaign.
Since the Columbine High School tragedy in Colorado in 1999, there have been 394 school shootings, exposing more than 360,000 students to gun violence. Yet guns are not among Americans’ top concerns heading into the election, according to polls. Voters have been paying more attention to issues like the economy, immigration, abortion, risks to democracy and even foreign policy. Kamala Harris did not even mention the problem of mass shootings in her acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination at the convention in Chicago three weeks ago, even though she herself heads the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention at Biden’s request.
Following the shooting in Georgia, the Democratic candidate did address the issue at a campaign event in North Hampton, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, calling what happened “a senseless tragedy behind so many senseless tragedies.” “It is simply outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It makes no sense. We have to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country. It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said, before adding, going off-script: “Our children are sitting in a classroom where they should be developing their God-given potential, and a part of their big, beautiful brain is worried about a shooter bursting through the door of their classroom. It doesn’t have to be this way.” “This is one of the many issues at stake in this election,” she concluded.
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At an earlier campaign event, Harris did say she was in favor of red flag laws, universal background checks, and a ban on assault weapons. These are some of the proposals which she has defended as vice president. Their strategy involves preventing unstable individuals and minors from accessing firearms, implementing preventative solutions in schools and addressing the mental health needs of students.
Harris is pushing for laws that would allow a family member or law enforcement to seek a court order to temporarily remove access to guns if they believe the owner may harm themselves or others. Presidents do not have the ability to change laws, but Harris, as vice president, has called on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law, an assault weapons ban and a safe storage law. She also seeks to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which gives gun dealers and manufacturers special immunity from certain liabilities for their products.
The one who did talk about guns at the Democratic convention was vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, moving in that balance between respect for the Second Amendment of the Constitution (which enshrines the right to bear arms) and restrictions. “I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I have the trophies to prove it. But I am also a father. I believe in the Second Amendment. But I also believe that our first responsibility is to keep our children safe,” he said in his speech.
This week, in the wake of the Georgia shooting, he insisted: “As a teacher, as a student, and as a parent, I loved back-to-school time, a time of hope and excitement. Now, for those kids, it will always be a time of pure terror, and that will be a memory they will cherish forever,” he said. “It’s a reminder to the rest of the country: we have work to do. And I, for one, am sick of hearing about thoughts and prayers instead of actually doing something.”
Biden made similar remarks at an event in Wisconsin on Thursday: “As a nation, we cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence. I am a gun owner. I firmly believe in the amendment, but we need more than thoughts and prayers. Some of my Republican friends in Congress just need to say, ‘Enough is enough. We have to do something.’”
Safety in schools
Trump has avoided commenting on gun regulation these days. After the shooting, he limited himself to issuing a statement of condemnation and condolences. through his social network, Truth: “Our hearts go out to the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic events in Winder, Georgia. These precious children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
The Republican position was defended by vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who at a campaign event said that “psychopaths” see schools as “easy targets” and advocated for increased security in educational centers. “Look, I don’t like this. I don’t like admitting this. I don’t like this to be a reality. But if you’re a psychopath and you want to make headlines, our schools are easy targets, and we need to increase security in our schools, so that a person who comes through the front door to kill a bunch of kids can’t do it. Again, as a parent, do I want my kids’ school to have extra security? No, of course not. I don’t want my kids to go to school in a place where they don’t feel like they have to have extra security, but that’s increasingly the reality we live in,” he said.
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